Who does not know that? You are sitting in the garden on a beautiful and warm summer evening. Suddenly you feel a kind of sting on the leg. Take a look and you know what the cause is: An insect bite, more specifically a mosquito bite. In itself harmless, but unpleasant, since a mosquito bite often brings enormous itching with it.

Stitches are annoying, but mostly harmless

Mosquitoes are an inevitable byproduct on nice summer days. In fact, they are annoying, but in Germany mosquito bites are classified as non-hazardous. Nevertheless, a mosquito bite can cause an allergic reaction and lead to severe redness and swelling.

Mosquito bite: what to do?

This helps against mosquito bites:

Immediately after a mosquito bite this should be disinfected directly. Thus, the risk of possible inflammation can be significantly reduced.

Very important: do not scratch, even if the itching is enormous. Biting a mosquito bite would make it easier for bacteria to invade our body, potentially causing infection.

For swelling helps: cool the affected skin area. A cooling gel for burns and insect bites calms the itchy swelling. If this is not at hand, it also does a cool pack or a damp cloth wrapped around the spot.

For the treatment of mosquito embroidery there are numerous household tips: It should help with the fingernail to press a cross just above the sting in the skin. Others swear by a sliced ​​onion or a drop of hot wax on the swelling. It makes more sense, in any case, to avoid the mosquito bites by preventive measures such as insect repellent or long clothes.

Mosquito bite: Allergy to mosquito bites?

In some people, a mosquito bite has no health consequences whatsoever, but more and more people complain that a mosquito bite leads to severe redness, swelling or wheals. Swelling after a mosquito bite is not necessarily a clear sign of an allergic reaction (allergy).

But if you also suffer from circulatory problems, vomiting or diarrhea, should have a doctor clarify a possible allergy. This can measure the existing antibodies in the blood and determine if there is a possible allergy. In this case, depending on the mosquito bite, a doctor will use antihistamines or cortisone for treatment.

In a mosquito bite, causing respiratory distress, an emergency doctor should be consulted immediately. Likewise with mosquito bites, which cause large swellings of the skin on the neck, mouth or eyes.

Why is a mosquito stinging?

Among the mosquitoes sting only females, whereas males nourish themselves from nectar. However, a female mosquito needs blood to help develop its eggs. For this reason, they are also very greedy in sucking blood, it is, so to speak, a life-drive.

Unfortunately, we often do not realize at first that we are being stung by a mosquito. Because a mosquito has no sting, but a trunk, with which it absorbs our blood. The trunk has a fine surface with teeth. So the mosquito can open the skin through tiny cuts, so to speak. Immediately after carving the skin, the mosquito injects its saliva into the skin opening.

On the one hand, the saliva causes a kind of anesthetic, so that we do not notice the sting until the mosquito has already struck. On the other hand, the saliva of the mosquito serves as an aid to keep the blood fluid. Without saliva, the blood would coagulate and the mosquito could not absorb it anymore. Basically a clever move of nature.

However, the composition of the saliva can be problematic. Because the existing proteins can be triggers of an allergy or for other possible reactions.

Defense system in the body raises alarm

The saliva of the mosquito can be composed of different proteins, which in turn are responsible for possible reactions. First of all, our body reacts to the saliva with an activation of the body's own defense, it releases histamine. In many people, a certain amount of histamine causes reactions to be evoked. Swelling, redness and itching can be noticeable.

There are also growing reports that pollution can be the cause of violent mosquito bites. The mosquitoes could be contaminated with pollutants from the pollution that they may then pass on sucking blood to us humans. Scientifically, this statement is not yet proven.

Sweat and heat attract insects

How come that some are rare and others very often stung by a mosquito? Even if the statement persists, that the sweetness of the blood is responsible for how often someone gets mosquito bites, it is clear from a scientific point of view that this is a fool's tale.

For mosquitoes, the smell of sweat and body temperature are appealing. Incidentally, places on the body that are extremely well supplied with blood are in particular demand. In addition, mosquitoes prefer to stick to areas of the body that are not or only slightly covered with hair.

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